OM DENNE EPISODE
I sat down with Kenny Whitelaw Jones, Co Founder of Gridlines, after more than twenty five years in finance, senior roles at KPMG and Deloitte, building a business of around 140 people across four continents, and training tens of thousands of professionals.
Then his career took a very different turn.
Kenny describes what he calls a midlife awakening. A period where the identity he had built around career, money, status, business and being a provider was no longer the whole story.
We talk about the personal crisis that forced him to look at himself differently, why he became a psychotherapist, what shadow work taught him about leadership, and why success can never fully solve questions of identity and self worth.
We also explore fear, anger, ego, childhood patterns, relationships, AI, executive performance and the parts of ourselves we often abandon while trying to become successful.
Timestamp for you:00:00 Introduction
01:00 From finance entrepreneur to psychotherapist
03:11 When success stopped feeling like the whole story
05:32 Who Kenny was at eighteen
08:37 What success meant in his twenties
09:57 The first promotion that made him feel successful
11:15 Why he walked away from the Big Four path
13:22 Building Gridlines differently
15:45 Growing to around 140 people across four continents
17:44 The career chapter that made him miserable
18:58 The business mistake that changed how he thinks about ownership
20:45 Learning to back himself
21:39 The personal crisis that transformed him
24:43 What he abandoned while becoming successful
26:46 Why business growth could never define his self worth
28:00 The death of his mother and rethinking how to use his remaining time
31:42 Shadow work and the five principles of acceptance
35:26 Why acceptance matters in leadership and company culture
37:26 Fear, control, insecurity and ego in senior leaders
39:47 Why anger is one of the most misunderstood emotions
42:14 AI, leadership and why human skills matter more
46:33 The advice Kenny gives leaders about accepting themselves
48:45 Kenny's exact ExecDNA
49:09 Closing
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Founder of ExecDNA
Host of ExecDNA Podcast
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariorivassanchez/
Co Founder of Gridlines
Psychotherapist
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennywhitelawjones/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/theshadowatwork/
TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@theshadowatwork
Deep Process Therapy:
https://www.deepprocesstherapy.com/
The Shadow at Work:
https://www.theshadowatwork.com/
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0XrGG1gNRsev6DlU?si=ce622db462c84839
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/execdna/id1847157416
#execdna #leadership #executiveleadership #personalgrowth #psychology
